


Not all Transylvanians

by Joeybelle



Category: Logan Lucky (2017)
Genre: F/M, First Date, First Kiss, Humor, Myths Busted, Pre or Post Canon whichever you like best, Romance, halloween fic, vampire myths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 11:43:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16474925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joeybelle/pseuds/Joeybelle
Summary: Five times Clyde Logan suspected the new girl in town may be a vampire, and one time he found out the truth.





	Not all Transylvanians

“I’m telling you, she’s a vampire.”

“Bullshit,” Jimmy says, downing his drink.

“It’s true.” Clyde refills both their glasses before putting the bottle away. 

The bar is less crowded than usual, but it just means that people are starting to get ready for Halloween. It’s always like that a couple of days before any big celebration, like everyone just stays at home getting ready for the big night. Clyde hanged up some decorations too, and there will be a party two nights from now, but he isn’t really excited about it. It’s never been his favourite holiday, especially when he was a kid and his older brother would go trick or treating with his friends and he was left to look after Mellie. He hated it then, but he is indifferent now. He doesn’t plan on dressing up—people stare at him on a good day and he doesn’t need the extra attention—and he will be working anyway. Not much of a celebration. 

And right now he has other things on his mind anyway. Like the new girl in town. The _vampire girl._

“I’m telling you, she’s a vampire,” he repeats, annoyed by his brother’s unwillingness to listen. But he expected it; Jimmy never once believed him when it came to the supernatural. He doesn’t believe and is proud of it, which is really stupid, Clyde thinks, because you never know what lurks out there and underestimating it just makes you vulnerable. 

“It’s just hogwash,” Jimmy says, gesturing to Clyde to bring him another beer. “You’ve been at it since last night, saying the same thing over and over again like a broken record. I don’t even know what’s gotten into you.”

“I’ve been trying to tell you for the past few days, but you wouldn’t listen. I’ve known about it for weeks.”

“Weeks?! You’ve been obsessing over her for weeks?” He’s almost jumping off his chair in shock, and Clyde can feel his cheeks starting to burn. Of course he’s been curious about her, she was new in town and non human. He had to keep an eye on her, especially since no one else seemed to notice it. “Man, you really need to get laid,” Jimmy says, grabbing the beer bottle out of his hand. 

“It’s not like that!” He strongly denies it, knowing full well that he’ll be hearing about this for months, potentially even years from now. He wishes he’d kept his mouth shut to avoid his brother’s teasing, but it’s important. She is a vampire and a potential danger to them all. Especially after last night. “It’s just that she’s a vampire and I had to keep an eye on her.”

“Mhm. How did you even come to this conclusion?”

“Well, it took some time to figure it out. I didn’t really know what she was in the beginning, I just knew she wasn’t human.”

> When Clyde first met the new girl it was on a dark, moonless night, at the gas station. It was really late, and he’d stopped on his way home to get some gas and buy a couple of things since he didn’t have much time to go shopping during the day. She was in front of him at the counter, happily chatting with the clerk, but once she noticed him entering the store she stopped and packed her stuff into a tote bag, wishing the clerk good night. 
> 
> At first, Clyde thought she was a passer-by or a tourist, because he knew pretty much everyone who lived in the small town and he was sure he’d never seen her in his life. She really didn’t look like she belonged in Boone County either. Maybe it was the fancy clothes she wore, a little too posh for the local youth, something he usually only saw in the magazines in the waiting room of his sister’s hair salon. Or maybe it was her accent and something about her mannerisms. From the way she spoke, she could have been a foreigner.
> 
> The next thing he noticed when she walked past him was how eerily beautiful she was. The poor light inside the shop caught on her cheekbones, giving her a faint glow as she walked towards him. She had flawless skin and her lips arched beautifully making his eyes linger on them maybe a second too long. Her eyes were mesmerizing, looking like they changed colour as she moved, bordered by full lustrous, lashes. But what was the most beautiful thing about her was the bright smile she flashed him while saying hello, as he just stood there, staring dumbly at her. 
> 
> He managed to blurt out a greeting before she left the shop, but he’d already made a fool of himself. She giggled and waved, then disappeared into the night. He sighed and went to pay for his gas, head hung in embarrassment. 
> 
> “She just moved here, you know,” the clerk let him know while helping him bag a six pack of beer and two boxes of frozen pizza. “About a week ago, or so. She doesn’t really know anyone yet, so she randomly drops by at odd hours to buy this or that and always stays to chat. I think she just wants a little company,” he said, smiling.
> 
> “Does she?” Clyde asked, just to be polite. After the awkward meeting, he’d really hoped she was just a tourist, someone who he’ll never have to see again. He wasn’t very good with women, especially when they took him by surprise with their long lashes and beautiful smiles. 
> 
> “I thought you’d already know her, since she moved so close to your place.”
> 
> “What?”
> 
> “Yeah, she moved into a trailer pretty close to where you guys live.”
> 
> Clyde knew about the trailer. He’d watched from his porch with Jimmy and a dozen beers as they brought it and put it in place one afternoon. It was close—annoyingly close—and both of them hated it. The only good thing about their trailer was that it was remote, away from any nosy neighbours. He could just step out of the house whenever he woke up and relieve himself in the bushes without a single care. Not that he’d ever do that, or admit to it, but now they were going to take away even a small comfort like that. 
> 
> But as the days passed, he didn’t see anyone moving in. The trailer was always dark, there was no car and he didn’t see anyone coming in or out, so he was really surprised to hear that someone was already living there. 
> 
> “I guess we just didn’t cross paths,” Clyde said, taking his bag. 
> 
> “Until now,” the clerk said with a toothy grin. 
> 
> “Yeah, until now,” he mumbled, said goodbye and left the store. 
> 
> The night was just as dark as when he arrived, and the parking lot just as empty. Then it hit him that he hadn’t seen any other car when he came in either. She must have… walked to the gas station? It wasn’t close. It would probably take her more than an hour to get back home. Alone. In almost pitch black darkness. He got into his car and drove away slowly, looking for her on the side of the road. 
> 
> He found her about a mile away, a little further away than he would have expected, but there she was, walking alone in the dark. He pulled over and rolled down the window.
> 
> “Do you need a ride?” he asked, when she poked her head through the window.
> 
> “Yeah, sure,” she said, after thinking about it for a second.
> 
> “Then hop in.”
> 
> And she did, and the moment the engine started, Clyde realized he had no way of avoiding the awkwardness. He’d made a fool of himself when he first met her and now he was becoming more flustered with every passing second. What was he going to say? How would he tell her he already knew where she lived without sounding like a creep? Would she think he stalked her? Should he just pretend he didn’t know anything about her? But then again, he wasn’t a very good liar. 
> 
> “So… you’re my neighbour, right?” she asked, the same dashing smile playing on her lips. “Or do I have the wrong person?” 
> 
> “No, no… I mean, yeah, we’re neighbours.” He was even dumber than usual, but he blamed it on a very long and tiring day. It didn’t help that she was openly studying him.
> 
> “It’s so nice to meet you,” she said, and introduced herself. Her last name sounded foreign, so maybe that’s where her accent came from. 
> 
> “Clyde Logan,” he said in reply and luckily she didn’t want to shake his hand, for it would be pretty dangerous while driving. “I haven’t seen you around.”
> 
> Her smile faltered for a moment, but then it was back. “I’m a bit of a hermit, kinda ashamed to admit.”

“So you made an ass of yourself in front of her,” Jimmy says, asking for another beer, “and then you’ve invented this vampire story to cover it up.”

“What? No!”

“But you did make a fool of yourself in front of her.”

“I can’t deny that now, can I?” Clyde sighs, and hands him another beer.

“I really don’t understand where all this vampire thing comes from.”

“Well you would if you’d just listen.”

“Alright, go on.”

> After that first meeting Clyde kept bumping into her at the gas station. Most of the time he’d offer to take her home and she’d gladly accept. Since it was only a short drive, he didn’t get to find out much about her. She was talking passionately about little things, but didn’t seem willing to talk much about herself. And Clyde didn’t pry. He knew what it was like to want to have your privacy respected and he didn’t cross that line.
> 
> He’d drop her off in front of her trailer and she would thank him every time. She was a bit embarrassed for not having a car yet, but she kept saying she was saving for one. And then she would wish him good night and disappear into the house, leaving him in the dark. At first he thought she never turned on her lights, because now that he knew there was someone living there, he sneaked a peak from time to time, and the house always seemed covered in darkness; but then he realized that she just had some very dark, opaque blinds that covered her windows, that didn't let almost any light pass through. He found it a bit weird, but he just shrugged it as one of her quirks.
> 
> The first time he realized there was something different about her was on a rainy night. It had been overcast the whole day, but it didn’t actually start raining until he was on his way home. And then if felt like all the rain started falling at once. He stopped at the gas station mostly for her, he knew she’d really need a ride home that night, but she was nowhere to be seen. She hadn’t arrived, the clerk said. Maybe she decided against going out on terrible weather like that. Clyde assumed that was the case, and didn’t wait around for her. 
> 
> As he was driving, he noticed a pair of eyes reflecting the light of his headlights. He thought it was a deer, confused by the rain, so he slowed down, hoping it wouldn’t run to the middle of the road in its confusion and get hit by his car. But it didn’t, instead it waited until his headlights illuminated her. It wasn’t a deer. It was human, or at least, in the shape of a human. It was _her_.
> 
> She waved and ran towards his car. Clyde stopped on the side of the road, his heart beating so hard he feared it would burst out of his chest. For a moment he considered locking the doors to prevent her from getting in and just driving away as fast as possible, but in the end he did none of that. 
> 
> “This weather is complete bullshit,” she said climbing in, passing a hand over her face to stop the water from getting into her eyes. She was drenched. “It’s fine one minute and then it starts pouring the next. I didn’t even take an umbrella with me. I don’t even think I have one anymore,” she said to herself. “Are you alright?” she asked, once she fastened her seatbelt and turned to look at him.
> 
> “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine,” he lied.
> 
> “Are you sure? You look a little pale.” She was looking at him with concern written all over her face. 
> 
> “Yeah, no, I’m good. I’m good,” he said, looking straight ahead. “It’s just that you startled me a little, jumping out of the shadows like that.”
> 
> “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, and her voice took on a sad note. “I really didn’t mean to scare you. I was just happy to see your car and be able to get out of the rain.”
> 
> “It’s okay,” he said, but she wasn’t looking at him anymore, looking out the window instead. 
> 
> The rest of the way home was silent. Clyde kept stealing glances at her, but she kept her head turned away, avoiding eye contact. When he dropped her off, she said goodnight and quickly got into the house. When he drove off, Clyde was sure a pair of glowing eyes were looking at him from behind the blinds.

“So you confused her for a deer on a rainy night and now you think she’s a vampire,” Jimmy says with a raised eyebrow.

“I didn’t confuse her for anything. I’m telling you, her eyes were glowing,” Clyde insists.

“Human eyes don’t reflect light, Clyde.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” he replies, leaning onto the counter, looking his brother in the eye. 

“Then it must have been something else you saw.”

“I know what I saw,” Clyde says, and turns his back to Jimmy, taking some time to tend to other patrons too. When he comes back Jimmy is still eyeing him suspiciously. 

“Okay, let’s say you’re right and her eyes were glowing,” he says on a more appeasing tone. “How did you come up with vampire? Why can’t she be something else? Wendigo?” Jimmy almost spits the last word, and Clyde knows he pulled it out of his ass. 

“Because she’s Transylvanian.”

“She’s what?”

“She’s from Romania, the birthplace of Dracula,” Earl chimes in, taking a seat next to Jimmy and gesturing to Clyde to bring him a beer. “Well, her family comes from Transylvania,” he explains, taking a long sip from the bottle. “She was born in the US.”

> After that night in the rain, Clyde did his best to avoid her, at least until he knew what he was dealing with. As his Gran always said, you shouldn’t mess with things you don’t understand, and if you do understand, you should really know better than to mess with them anyway. So he kept his distance. He stopped going to the gas station at night, opting to refuel and buy his stuff before going to work, even if that meant occasionally leaving his beer in the car all day and finding it warm.
> 
> And it worked for a while. Until she came to the bar one night, that is. 
> 
> She was just as pretty as he remembered, but now even that was suspicious. There was something inhuman about her, something in the way she moved and carried herself, something that he was just starting to notice. 
> 
> “Hello,” she said, climbing onto an empty bar stool. Clyde looked at her suspiciously, but she smiled at him when he said hello, as if she didn’t notice. “I was afraid I’d scared you so bad you left town,” she said, looking at her hands instead.
> 
> Clyde suddenly felt a pang of guilt, because she might not have been human, but he hadn’t intended to come off as rude and hurt her feelings. “I’m sorry,” he said, without even trying to find an excuse. “What can I get ya?” 
> 
> “Umm… just water, please,” she said, looking around, nervously fidgeting with the napkin in front of her. “I’ve decided to get out of the house a little,” she explained. “Before I grow mould and start to forget what it’s like to talk to people face to face. And I guess it’s a good opportunity to meet the townsfolk before they start making up rumours about the weird neighbour no one has seen in person yet.” She laughed, but Clyde could tell she wasn’t really in her element, so he smiled when he placed a bottle of water in front of her. 
> 
> “There’s still going to be people talking, but they talk about every new person that moves in town. Don’t worry too much about them,” he tried putting her at ease. 
> 
> “It’s okay, I know they will. I have a lifestyle that invites rumours and I’ve moved around enough to almost always be the new girl in town. I’ve heard them all,” she said, still folding the napkin between her fingers. 
> 
> “Oh, if it isn’t the new girl!” Both turned around to see Earl climbing on the stool next to her, looking a little inebriated already. Clyde was going to tell him off, but she laughed and extended a hand for him to shake.
> 
> “To everyone’s surprise, the new girl has a name,” she said, introducing herself.
> 
> “Well then, sorry about that. My name is Earl,” he said, shaking her hand. “And this one here is Clyde Logan. Knowing him he probably forgot to introduce himself.” Clyde sent him a death glare, but it was completely ignored.
> 
> “Oh, we’ve already met,” she smiled at him and Clyde could feel his cheeks starting to burn. He didn’t like this effect she had on him, with her intense gaze and the way her lips curled when she smiled. It reeked of powers he didn’t understand. He didn’t like it one bit.
> 
> “Oh is that so?” Earl smiled, like he knew something and Clyde was already starting to get a bit annoyed. “And where do you come from?”
> 
> “If you’re referring to my last name, my family comes from Romania. You know, Eastern Europe.” 
> 
> “Transylvania?”
> 
> “Eeeexactly,” she laughed. “But it was a very long time ago. I was born and raised in the USA.”
> 
> “So you have vampire blood,” Earl jokingly asked, but for Clyde it was like his eyes had opened and he finally understood. 
> 
> All the pieces of the puzzle were finally falling into place. She wasn’t human, he figured that out when he saw her eyes glow in the dark, he had never seen her out in the daytime, the blinds at her window, even her unnatural beauty and his attraction towards her had a simple explanation: she was a vampire. 
> 
> “Well,” she laughed, but seemed a bit uncomfortable, stealing glances at Clyde from time to time, “I guess I do. But you know, contrary to popular belief, there are more witches in Transylvania than vampires.”
> 
> “Have you ever been to Romania? Gone back to your roots?”
> 
> “Actually, yes. I just came back. I’ve been living in Europe for the past decade or so, but the US is still my home, so I decided to move back here.”
> 
> “And why Boone County?” Clyde asked, and to his horror his voice sounded rather accusatory. 
> 
> She shrugged. “It’s cheap. And quiet.”

“So you figured she is a vampire just because her family came here from Europe.” Jimmy seems even more skeptical than before. Clyde takes a deep breath and pours himself another drink. He knew from the start that this was a bad idea, but it was important to make his brother believe him this time. “I hate to break it to you, but there are millions of people living in Europe, and none of them are vampires,” Jimmy continues in a sarcastic tone.

“Just Transylvania, not the whole Europe,” Earl chimes in. 

“What makes you think Transylvania is full of vampires?”

“Bram Stoker. Dracula. Haven’t you read the book?” Earl asks, wide eyed. “What do you keep that huge bookshelf in your house for?”

“That’s Clyde’s. Now you see where he gets these stupid ideas from. Wait, don’t tell me you believe him.”

“It’s not a stupid idea,” Clyde says, getting increasingly annoyed. “Everything fits.”

Jimmy is silent for a moment, looking at him with a raised eyebrow, and Clyde is sure he’ll just mock him further. But then he takes a deep breath and seems to reconsider.

“What fits?” he asks.

“First of all, she never goes out in the sunlight,” Clyde explains and Jimmy rolls his eyes. “Have you ever seen her during the day?”

“I don’t spend that much time looking for her. You, on the other hand…”

“It’s not like that,” Clyde mumbles, but he knows it’s only partially true. If she weren’t a vampire he would have certainly looked at her ‘like that’. Hell, he’s still looking, but it’s mostly out of curiosity. Mostly. “Listen, she doesn't come out during the day,” he keeps going, ignoring the all knowing smile on Earl’s face. “Have you ever seen her coming out of house during the day?” he asks Jimmy. “Or around town? Or anywhere else besides the bar, at night?” Jimmy opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it and shrugs, and Clyde feels like he’s won a small victory. “She even went to cut her hair at night.”

> ‘If you could drop by in the next half an hour,’ Mellie’s text said, ‘I could cut your hair tonight. I have everything booked next week.’
> 
> ‘Are you still at the salon? Why aren’t you at home already?’ he texted back, worried that she would overwork herself. 
> 
> ‘I have a client that asked to come in late, so I came back. I can cut your hair tonight too, if you can leave the bar for a while. It won’t take long.’
> 
> The bar wasn’t that crowded, so he was sure his staff would be able to keep it running for half an hour without him. He only trusted his sister to cut his hair and lately she’d been pretty busy, so this was an opportunity he really couldn’t miss. His hair was getting annoyingly long. It was at her suggestion that he grew it out after being discharged and he liked it, but sometimes he found it hard to manage. He hated waking up with hair in his mouth.
> 
> He got into the car and drove to the salon where Mellie was working. The sun had just set, so the town was still filled with the soft, dwindling light of twilight. He followed the cheerful chatter inside the salon to where Mellie was with her client.
> 
> “Oh, hello there,” a familiar voice greeted him and he was surprised to find his sister washing the vampire girl’s hair. “Got a day off today?” she asked with a smile.
> 
> “No,” Mellie replied in his place. “I told him to come by. He needs a trim before he turns into Rapunzel.”
> 
> “I think long hair suits him,” she said, as Mellie wrapped her hair into a towel. 
> 
> “You’re early,” Mellie scolded him with a frown, while fussing around. “You should have come half an hour later, like I told you. Now you’ll just have to wait.”
> 
> “No, you said I should come in the next half an hour, and I’m here,” Clyde said, pouting. He knew what she said, it wasn’t his fault that she mixed the appointments up, but he was a bit annoyed that he would have to waste his time waiting around. But in a way it wasn’t that bad. He wouldn’t want his sister to be alone with a vampire anyway. She didn’t seem aggressive until now, but she was a vampire after all, who knew what might happen. So he’d have to keep an eye on her. 
> 
> “It’s okay, he can go first so he can go back to work,” she said, holding onto the towel. “I don’t mind, I’m in no hurry.”
> 
> “Are you sure it’s okay?”
> 
> “No it’s fine,” Clyde interrupted. “I can wait.”
> 
> She opened her mouth to protest, but Mellie cut her off. “I have a feeling you’ll both argue till morning and I really want to go home soon. Clyde, you’re up, get here and let me wash your hair.”
> 
> Clyde reluctantly took a seat in the chair. He didn’t want to argue with his sister, especially when he knew she was already overworking herself, but he wasn’t happy about it either. 
> 
> “Oh, stop being a grump,” she said, noticing the pout on his face. 
> 
> He sat silently in the chair as Mellie washed his hair, studying the other girl. She was looking in the big mirror on the wall, touching the reddened skin on the bridge of her nose and cheeks and hissing. To Clyde it looked like a really nasty sunburn, her skin looking irritated and painful. There were traces of something white on her face, making her complexion look almost ashy. 
> 
> “I have some aloe gel in that drawer over there,” Mellie said, pointing a soapy finger towards one of the desks. “If you think that might help.”
> 
> “Yeah it will, thanks,” she said, opening the drawer and taking out a bottle. “Could I also use your cleanser? This sunscreen is making everything worse.”
> 
> “Sure.”
> 
> Clyde watched her take out another bottle and a pack of cotton pads. She took one out and started carefully removing the white traces of what Clyde figured was sunscreen. Her skin looked pretty irritated underneath it, and as he studied her he could see that the skin on the back of her hands and wrists was the same shade of violent red. No wonder she was wearing long sleeves on such a beautiful and warm day. 
> 
> She scooped a considerable amount of aloe vera gel from the second bottle and gently applied it on her face and wrists. Clyde had to reconsider what he knew about vampires: she had a reflection in the mirror and didn’t burst into flames in the sun, but she got really sunburnt. He figured that if it got that bad only walking out to the hair salon in the evening sun, he didn’t want to think about what would happen if she spent a whole day outside. 
> 
> But either way, even with all her makeup off and her face reddened and patchy, he still found himself incredibly attracted to her, and he still blushed like and idiot when she noticed him staring and winked. It must have been her vampire magic at work. 
> 
> “I’m sorry,” Mellie continued. “If I’d know the extent of your condition I would have moved your appointment later today.”
> 
> “Oh, it’s okay, don’t worry. I didn’t get this walking here,” she explained. “I had to go to the bank and the DMV and I don’t have a car yet so it meant a lot of waiting around in the sun. I’ll have to order my usual sunscreen too, this one is crap.”
> 
> “Does it take long to heal?”
> 
> “It’s pretty bad for a couple of days. It can get really itchy. But then it peels off and I’m fine.”
> 
> “Well, next time let me know and I’ll make time later in the evening. Or I can drop by your place if that’s more comfortable with you.”
> 
> “Either way is fine.”
> 
> Oh, that wasn’t okay. He didn’t want his sister alone in a house with a vampire, even with one that was as cute and seemed as nice as her. He knew that vampires had to feed, and he knew what they were feeding on. Over the past few weeks since he first figured out what she was he kept watching the news for any suspicious deaths of disappearances, but he didn’t hear of any. Maybe she didn’t hunt around the area she lived in, probably because she didn’t want to attract too much attention. Everyone knew, and he presumed a vampire would too, that you don’t shit where you eat.
> 
> In a way that calmed him down considerably. That meant none of the people in town were in danger. If he really thought about it, she had countless opportunities to attack him, he had given her rides home almost every time she came by the bar late at night, or he’d pick her up from the gas station almost every other day, and she never showed any hostility. He couldn’t think of her attacking people anyway. She seemed way too kind and sweet to do something like that. But then, what did she eat?
> 
> Mellie had finished washing his hair in the meantime and started shortening it. The girls were gleefully chatting around him, and he found himself unable not to steal glances at her. She was surprisingly human, for a vampire, he thought. He realized that most of the weird and unnatural glow he kept seeing on her face was just makeup, and he felt a little silly. He didn’t understand everything that women did to their faces, something that Mellie always laughed at. But her eyes, her eyes still seemed to change colour whenever she moved and she still had a sort of wild look from time to time.
> 
> Overall, she was a very attractive person. Not specifically like the girls that he saw in magazines nowadays or the porn stars he sometimes jerked off to, but in her own special way. She always seemed ready to smile and tell a joke, and even though sometimes he caught her just staring in the distance, her demeanor always changed when he spoke to her. She was open and cute and friendly. Whenever she’d come to the bar she’d stay behind and help him close, even clean the tables and take out the trash. He realized that he’d love to date someone like her. Well, if she weren’t a vampire, that is.
> 
> Would a vampire ever date a human, anyway?
> 
> “You’re done,” Mellie said, brushing away a few strands of hair from his neck. “Now get your ass outta here.”
> 
> Clyde got off the chair and flicked some hair from his sleeve. His head was feeling a little lighter than before, which was a good thing.
> 
> “You’re looking really good!” She was looking at him with her big smile and red cheeks and Clyde was really happy he didn’t trip over his own two feet and make a fool of himself once again in front of her. Vampire or not, she was a very attractive woman and a part of him wanted to be able to impress. But he knew he couldn’t, so he wished he would stop embarrassing himself, at least.
> 
> She took his place in the chair and Mellie started trimming her ends. Clyde still lingered around the edge of the room, reluctant to go back to the bar just yet. On one hand, he really didn’t want to leave his sister alone with the vampire, in case she wasn’t as nice as she seemed, and on the other hand, if she was as nice as she seemed, he kinda wanted to spend a little more time with her. This was quite the dilemma he was going though. 
> 
> “Don’t you have to go back to work?” Mellie asked, eventually noticing that he was still glued in place. 
> 
> “Umm…” he mumbled, trying to find a reason to stay, his eyes darting towards her. She was fixing him in the mirror, while Mellie was still trimming her hair. “Do you need a lift somewhere?” he asked her standing straight and rigid in his place, making an effort not to fidget nervously. 
> 
> She smiled in return. “I’m going home after this. I don’t want anyone to see me with this face, it’s bad enough that you guys saw me like this. So no going out for me tonight, sorry.”
> 
> “Oh shush,” Mellie reassured her. “You’re very pretty.”
> 
> “I can give you a ride home,” Clyde blurted out, making both girls turn around to look at him. “If you’d like,” he added, feeling himself shrinking under Mellie’s cheeky smile. 
> 
> “That’s quite a big detour,” she said, and somehow her cheeks became a little redder. 
> 
> “It’s alright. I’m in no hurry.”
> 
> “Alright. Thank you,” she said, smiling brightly.
> 
> Mellie looked at him with an amused smile playing on her lips and Clyde wanted to be able to tell her that it’s _not like that_. But Clyde knew she wouldn’t believe him. He couldn’t let anyone know he knew her secret until he had hard evidence. Too bad he had no idea how to get it. Until then, he’d have to silently keep an eye on her and swallow the teasing he knew he’d be getting. 
> 
> “We’ll be done in ten minutes,” Mellie let him know with a wink, and Clyde decided to wait outside, because the salon had suddenly become hot and stuffy. 
> 
> The night outside was beautiful, the stars glimmering in the perfectly clear sky. The air felt warm and pleasant, still bearing the memory of the summer heat. Clyde liked autumns. He liked the colours and the mild weather and the way it smelled after rain. It made him feel at peace.
> 
> She came out ten minutes later followed by Mellie. “Thanks a lot for offering me a ride. I really appreciate it.”
> 
> “It’s no big deal,” he said, guiding her to his car. 
> 
> “He’s single, you know,” he heard Mellie yell from the door of the salon. Clyde hoped the ground would open up and swallow him whole, but she giggled and hid her face.

“You didn’t have to add the last part.” Clyde frowns at his sister, who joined them in the middle of the story and took a seat on the other side of Jimmy. “That wasn’t important.”

“Someone had to tell her you’re single. You know you don’t pick up hints that fast, she would have aged waiting for you to make a move,” Mellie said. 

“So you took her home,” Jimmy asks, “and then?”

“And then what?”

“Did she invite you in for coffee or something?”

“She doesn’t eat or drink,” Clyde says matter of factly, like he should have already known that. “She’s a vampire.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Jimmy says with a snicker. 

Clyde opens his mouth to protest, but is interrupted by Mellie. “Oh, come on, Clyde you don’t really believe that. It’s absurd.”

“It’s not,” he says and Jimmy snorts. “She’s Transylvanian, she only comes out at night, she burns in the sun…”

“She’s got a sun allergy,” Mellie chimes in. “She’s not the first person I know with a sun allergy, but hers is more severe. That’s why she works a job that allows her to stay home and work nights.”

“What does she do?” Jimmy asks, honestly curious.

“I don’t know, some sort of IT tech support job for an overseas company. I didn't really get the details.”

“I guess that pays well.”

“But what if it’s not a sun allergy?” Clyde asks, feeling completely ignored. 

“Vampires burst into flames in the sun,” Mellie insists, counting on her manicured fingers. “They don’t have a reflection in the mirror; they have fangs, she doesn’t; their skin is ice cold. Have you touched her to see that she’s warm and alive? Vampires are undead, Clyde.”

“Maybe we don’t know everything there is to know about vampires,” Clyde says, already feeling like he’s fighting a losing battle. Jimmy rolls his eyes so hard he’s afraid they may do a 180 and get them stuck in the back of his head. Earl seems terribly amused by the whole story, and Clyde knows, even if he isn’t antagonizing him, that he doesn’t believe his story one bit. Mellie, well, he knows Mellie: she’ll try to prove him he’s wrong while being as supportive as she can. He really wishes he could just drop it and go home and sleep, but he needs to try and convince them first. 

“You don’t know anything about vampires,” Jimmy says, finishing his beer, “because vampires don’t exist, Clyde.” 

“They do. And she’s one of them.”

“You’re just taking some unrelated facts and piecing them together in this theory of yours,” Mellie says, propping her elbow on the counter and resting her chin in the palm of her hand. “Everything you said until now can be easily explained.”

“Why doesn’t she eat? Or drink? Or why does she hate garlic?”

> Her weird eating habits or, to be precise, her lack of eating, often occupied Clyde’s thoughts. Especially when she came to the bar and always ordered plain, bottled water. He didn’t mind, she tipped generously to make up for the lack of spending on drinks, but the bottle would almost always be left untouched. He felt like she only ordered it so it wouldn’t look weird that she wasn’t drinking anything, but people still noticed. 
> 
> She easily made friends around the bar. Somehow, people seemed to be naturally attracted to her, something Clyde attributed to her vampire powers. Weren’t vampires supposed to be inhumanly attractive? That’s how they managed to get away with literal murder. But because of this she’d often have people buy drinks for her, drinks that she politely refused every time. People started asking questions, to which she replied that she didn’t drink alcohol. Ever. So they started offering sodas. She doesn’t like them, or she’s on a diet, or the fizz just makes her stomach feel weird. And excuse after excuse, she only stuck to her bottle of water. 
> 
> But with a social life also came social expectations and she couldn’t avoid them forever, as she found out one night when one of her new found friends threw a birthday party. They bought everyone a round of drinks and insisted that everyone got something to eat, because if this wasn’t the best steakhouse in town, it was at least the coziest. Their words, not his. Clyde trusted the quality of their steaks. 
> 
> She tried her best to wiggle out of it by saying that she wasn’t hungry, that she didn’t like eating out and eventually that she had a food intolerance to basically everything, to which more than one eyebrow raised towards the ceiling. Clyde’s included.
> 
> “My body doesn’t process carbs, basically,” she explained to a table of very curious people. Clyde was listening intently too, as he was freeing the table of some empty beer bottles, to make space for food. “It won’t kill me, but it’s not a good idea to try and eat them.”
> 
> “So what do you eat then?” one of her new friends asked, a very pertinent question.
> 
> “I can eat meat and some vegetables. Very few vegetables. But I have to be very careful when I have those. Even so I still get terrible cramps from time to time, for no apparent reason. And on top of all this, I’m very picky about food and drinks in general,” she said, twisting a napkin between her fingers, fidgeting nervously. It seemed she didn’t like talking about her eating habits. Of course not. She was a vampire. 
> 
> “So that’s why you only drink water?”
> 
> “Yeah. I don’t wanna risk getting surprise diarrhea when I’m out. It tends to ruin your night.” A round of laughter followed and the atmosphere lightened up a little.
> 
> “Well, you said you can eat meat,” one of the girls said. “You could order a steak. I kinda like the steaks they make here.”
> 
> “I don’t think that’s safe…”
> 
> “Hey, just order a steak, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it. Come on, it’s my treat.”
> 
> She lifted her eyes and looked at Clyde like she was hoping he could offer her a way out of this, but there was nothing he could do, so he just shrugged. 
> 
> “Alright,” she sighed, grabbing the menu. 
> 
> “Are you ready to order?” Clyde asked after a couple of minutes and she looked at him with a deep ridge between her eyebrows. 
> 
> “Umm… a steak?” she almost whispered, dropping the menu to the table, so Clyde had to bend down to hear what she was saying. “Blue, if possible and no seasoning?” 
> 
> She seemed very uncertain of her order, so Clyde repeated it. “So steak, very rare, no seasoning. Not even salt?”
> 
> “No. Just the way it is,” she shrugged and Clyde nodded. So she wanted an almost raw steak, completely tasteless. What was she going to do with it anyway, suck the blood out of the slab of meat?
> 
> “Okay,” he said, nodding to himself. He’d have to negotiate with his cook. It was going to be fun. 
> 
> “No seasoning?” he asked, looking at Clyde like he grew a second head. 
> 
> “Yes.”
> 
> “At all?”
> 
> “Yep.” 
> 
> “And very rare,” he added, eyeing him suspiciously.
> 
> “That’s what she ordered.”
> 
> “What’s she like some sort of cannibal?”
> 
> That made absolutely no sense, but his cook rarely made sense. “Not that I’m aware of,” Clyde said, but he didn't continue with what he was aware of. He didn’t want to out her. Not yet at least. 
> 
> “Well, our client is our master,” the cook said, returning to the kitchen. 
> 
> Clyde sighed and tended to other customers until the food was ready and then he started bringing the plates to their table. When he eventually reached her plate, the cook gave him the stink eye while passing the plate. The steak looked fine, a bit undercooked for his tastes, but he hoped the cook had followed the directions. He didn’t know how she was going to eat it, with her being a vampire and all, but he didn’t want to disappoint. He was really proud of his little establishment. 
> 
> He started walking towards her table, and he could see her face scrunch up in disgust as he was getting closer. 
> 
> “Is there garlic on it?” she asked, holding her nose, leaning back into her chair as far away from the plate as possible.
> 
> “Umm,” he said, looking at her plate. There was a small cup with sauce in it on the side of the plate. “There’s some of our special garlic and herb sauce, but it isn’t touching the meat.”
> 
> “Can you please take it away?” she pleaded in the same nasal voice. “I really, really hate garlic.”
> 
> “Alright,” he said, taking the cup away.
> 
> “Thank you,” she said to his retreating figure, but only started relaxing once he was a considerable distance away from her. Clyde took the sauce back to the kitchen, earning another dirty look from the cook.
> 
> “What, she didn’t like that either?” Clyde shook his head. “Kids these days. They’re only eating toast and avocado.”
> 
> Clyde shrugged and returned to the bar. She was still eyeing the steak a little suspiciously, poking it with the tip of the knife, as if she was looking for any speck of reasoning that might have flown on top of it. Eventually she cut a piece and put it into her mouth, chewing slowly. Clyde half expected her to spit it out, but she kept chewing.

“So at first you’re telling me she doesn’t eat. And now you’re telling me she eats.” Jimmy looks at him with raised eyebrows, and Clyde can tell he’s already sick and tired of this story.

“She didn’t finish her steak. And I didn’t have the time to see if she actually swallowed any of it or she just pretended to eat.”

“Oh, of course she ate it you dummy,” Mellie laughed. “Do you know it’s rude to stare at someone while they’re eating?”

“I wasn’t staring,” he says, suddenly realizing, full of embarrassment, that he had been. “I just wanted to know why she wasn’t eating.”

“Well, she told you,” Mellie continued. “She’s got food allergies.”

“Food _and_ sun allergies?” Earl asks, gesturing for another beer, but Clyde isn’t sure if he’s taking his side or just trying to antagonize Mellie. 

“Some people are unlucky like that.” She shrugs. “Maybe she has an autoimmune disease.”

“She’s a vampire,” Clyde says with even more conviction than before. “And now she has access to our house.”

“How so?” 

“Jimmy invited her in.”

“She needed an electric screwdriver. What was I supposed to do, leave her hanging in the doorway?” 

“You’ve invited her into our house, and now she can come anytime she wants.”

“Of course she can. And she definitely should.”

> It was already pretty late when Clyde heard a knock on their trailer door. He only seldomly allowed himself a day off—well, a night off in his case—but he really felt like he needed one right now, so he left someone else to look after the bar for the night. The past few weeks had been really stressful, with work and Halloween preparations on one hand and the whole vampire situation on the other. The bar wasn’t doing great and they were short on staff, so Clyde found himself working to the point of exhaustion lately. So when he found himself becoming snappy, he knew he really needed a day off. 
> 
> By the time he got up from his bed to get the door Jimmy was already chatting with their new neighbour. 
> 
> “So it’s not the easiest task putting together Ikea furniture,” she said and her cheerful voice echoed so beautifully through the living room. “I figured some power tools would help me a lot, so I was wondering if I could borrow an electric screwdriver or something from you guys.”
> 
> “You thought right. And I have exactly what you need,” he said, hurrying to the small storage closet and coming out with a sealed box. “I just bought a new one today, let me just put it together for you. The old one’s crap,” he said, taking a seat on the living room couch, starting to unbox the tool. 
> 
> “Oh, hello Clyde,” she said, finally noticing his awkward presence back in the kitchen. “Having a day off?”
> 
> “Yep,” he said, keeping his distance. 
> 
> “Well, come inside, don’t just stand in the doorway. Clyde, bring me a knife.”
> 
> “May I?” she asked, shyly poking her head through the door.
> 
> “Yeah, of course, come on in. And Clyde, get her something to drink.”
> 
> Clyde looked in horror as she took a few timid steps inside their living room, suddenly remembering that vampires couldn’t come inside uninvited and now the only barrier that stood against them both being sucked to death had been broken. He could feel a shiver run down his spine, and the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. 
> 
> “Will you bring her a drink or you’re just gonna stand there?” Jimmy asked, lifting his eyes from the tool.
> 
> “Oh no, it’s okay, I just ate. Please don’t bother.” 
> 
> Clyde looked at her suspiciously. Did she just feed on someone before coming to their place to borrow a screwdriver? Did that mean that she already killed someone on her way over? And more importantly, were they safe?
> 
> “Come on, just a beer.”
> 
> “Sorry, but I don’t drink.”
> 
> “Ever?”
> 
> “Ever.” 
> 
> “Bring her a soda then.”
> 
> “I don’t drink soda either, sorry. Seriously, don’t mind me.”
> 
> The kept chatting while Clyde was rapidly panicking. He didn’t know how to handle this. There was a vampire in their living room, casually chatting with his brother while waiting for him to assemble an electric screwdriver. It felt unreal, but the sense of danger was real. 
> 
> He didn’t know what to do. He had no idea how to deal with the situation. He knew what the stories said, but what was he supposed to do, drive a stake through her heart and let her die on the floor? No, that wasn’t right. He didn’t want to kill her, only wanted her to not hurt anyone, especially him and his family. But because he seemed to be the only one who knew, he felt responsible. He’d tried talking to Mellie, but he was sure she didn’t believe him and if he told Jimmy he knew he’d laugh. Anything happened, it was on him. 
> 
> As he was panicking, frozen in place, his brother managed to set up the tool and handed it to her. She said good night and left the trailer, still chatting with Jimmy on the porch for a while. Clyde was afraid it would be the last time he’d see his brother, his imagination running wild with the most absurd scenarios, but then Jimmy came back looking just as alive as before.
> 
> “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, taking a beer out of the fridge. “You just stood there and said nothing, like a creep. Luckily, I think she likes you, otherwise I’m pretty sure she would have just ran off.”
> 
> “Jimmy.”
> 
> “What?”
> 
> “She’s a vampire,” he said, swallowing the lump in his throat.
> 
> “She’s a what? What the hell has gotten into you?”
> 
> “I’m telling you, she’s a vampire.”

Jimmy still looks at him with eyes full of doubt, arms crossed over his chest. Clyde sighs because he knows that all his efforts had been in vain and no matter what he would say from now on will fall on deaf ears. He loves his brother, but he’s amazed at how obtuse he can be at times.

“I’m gonna say this again,” Jimmy says, pointing a finger at Clyde’s chest, “you just took a bunch of random facts and created this stupid conspiracy theory, because I don’t know? You have no idea how to ask her out?” 

Luckily there aren’t that many people in the bar anymore, so only Earl laughs while Mellie pretends to take a sip of her drink to hide a smile. Clyde frowns, but lets it pass. He’s used to it. 

“Believe what you want,” he eventually says, taking the empty bottles and glasses from the counter and putting them away. “But don’t come to me if anything happens, because it will be too late and I won’t be able to help you.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Jimmy says, climbing down the bar stool. 

“Come on Clyde, nothing bad’s gonna happen. You’ve seen how sweet she is,” Mellie tries reassuring him, but he keeps his eyes down while wiping the counter. “Maybe instead of imagining things about her you’d take the time to get to know her better. Maybe, I don’t know, sparks may fly.”

Clyde throws her a dirty look, but she just winks back. He knows he’s already lost the battle, so there is no reason fighting them.

“Okay, gotta go,” Jimmy says, stretching his muscles. “It’s getting kinda late. Maybe you should close early tonight,” he tells Clyde. “Go home, get some rest. I think you need it.” 

Clyde scoffs, but doesn’t say anything in return. He just waits for them to leave so he can start cleaning and closing. He’s not excited about Halloween, he’s even less excited now than before. If people hadn’t known that the bar would be open, he’d just stay home and read a book instead. But he knows Halloween brings more revenue than a normal evening, and he really needs the money, so he sighs and starts cleaning. 

The bar is empty, chairs already on tables, floors clean, when he hears the front door open.

“I’m sorry,” she says with a timid smile on her face. “I saw the lights were still on and I hoped I’d still find you here. I hope I’m not intruding.”

“It’s okay, you’re not,” he says, hurrying to finish everything and go home. He’s exhausted and the only thing he wants is to sleep and forget. 

“Do you need any help?” she asks, walking between the tables.

“I’m almost done.” His voice is a little snappy and he thinks she’s noticed, because of the way she says ‘oh’ and moves out of his way. He’s mad, but not at her. Well he is a little mad at her too, because instead of being a vampire she could have been a normal person and his life would have been a million times easier, but then he realizes that what she is or isn’t is not her fault and he’s just being a dick. “I’m sorry, but there’s not much to do anymore. Do you need a ride home?” he asks, and hopes his voice is a lot softer this time. 

“Yes please! I was just going to ask you to give me a ride,” she says, looking somewhat relieved. “My grandma sent me a package from Europe, and I have no idea what’s in it, but it’s heavy as fuck.”

“Alright, just let me lock up and we’ll be on our way.”

“No rush.”

She waits for him to finish and even gives him a hand, because apparently she can’t just sit around and watch someone else work. Clyde likes her company. She’s sweet and nice and not at all how he would have imagined a vampire to be. But he knows supernatural creatures could be deceiving, so he doesn’t fully trust her. However, he doesn’t mind giving her a ride home. For some unknown reason he doesn’t feel unsafe around her, even though he did panic a little the night before. He blames it on exhaustion.

The parcel is outside, in the driveway. It’s a lot bigger than he expected and she insists that she will put it in the trunk herself. Clyde refuses, and is almost taken aback by how heavy it is. He can’t imagine how she could lift the package on her own, let alone carry it from wherever she did. He eyes her suspiciously, and decides it’s probably time to confront her about it. 

She talks almost all the way home, while Clyde is mostly silent. He doesn’t know how to breach the subject. How do you tell someone you suspect they’re a vampire? And what response should he expect from her? ‘Ha, you were right all along’ and a bite on the neck? His skin tingles just thinking about that. Or would she deny it and then disappear without a trace?

They eventually arrive in front of her trailer and he still hasn’t gathered the courage to ask her about it. She thanks him for the ride and he hauls the package from his trunk, amazed once again by how heavy it is. 

“Would you like to come inside?” she asks, pointing towards her house. “I’m pretty sure my Gran has send me at least a couple of bottles of wine, even though she knows I don’t drink. I’d like to give them to you, I’m pretty sure you’ll know what to do with them.”

She smiles with the key in her hand and Clyde wonders if that’s a hopeful smile on her face. He eventually says yes, so she unlocks the door and lets him in. 

There is still a lot of unassembled Ikea furniture laying around the living room, for which she apologizes profusely, but no coffin in sight. He wonders for a moment if Ikea sells coffins too. She’s really proud of the complicated shelf she managed to put together last night. Clyde is impressed too, especially by how she was able to screw it to the wall with no help. It looked really heavy. 

She guides him to the kitchen and motions for him to drop the parcel on the table, while she opens the fridge. 

“I’d offer you something to drink, but I have nothing besides water,” she says, tapping her chin. “Hopefully Gran did send me some wine.”

She takes a knife and cuts open the parcel, inviting Clyde to take a seat. He looks at her pulling out packing peanuts and bubble wrap, and wonders how he’s gonna ask her. He’s fidgeting with the hem of his shirt under the table when she emerges with a bottle from the huge box.

“I knew it!” She lifts the bottle in the air like a trophy and hands it to Clyde. “She keeps sending me French wine hoping that one day I will have friends to share it with. I kept selling them until now, but I think they’d be better in your company.”

Clyde takes the bottle and looks at it. It looks authentic and expensive and aged. He doesn’t know much about French wines, but he wouldn’t mind trying. However, it looks too expensive for him to accept so he just places it on the table. 

“Here’s another one. I think this one is Champagne,” she says, handing him another bottle. “As if I had anything to celebrate.”

Clyde takes it and looks at it appraisingly. “It looks… fancy.”

“I hope it’s good. I’ve never tasted Champagne in my life, I don’t know what it should taste like.”

“Why not?”

“I can’t tolerate alcohol. Even just a sip makes me very sick.” She sighs. “Now you see why I’ve never been the cool kid growing up. I can’t drink, I can’t eat most things that teens like. Recipe for being uncool,” she says pulling another bottle out of the box. “Extra virgin olive oil. I hate it.”

Clyde looks at her, narrowing his eyes. “Is it because you’re a vampire?”

She stops midway through ripping the bubble wrap off a small box. “Where did you get that idea from?” she laughs, disbelieving, and slowly puts the box on the table next to the bottles. Her whole demeanor changed in the blink of an eye, and Clyde can feel a shiver run down his spine. 

“Well…” Clyde stutters a little, her eyes fixed on him, her irises seeming to glow, the smile on her face not quite reaching them. “Well, I’ve never seen you out during the day…” he starts, but she cuts him off.

“Because I work nights. As tech support for a company on another continent,” she says pointing to the computer in the corner of the living room. “I spend most of my nights glued to that chair right there. I guess you’d understand why I spend the rest of the time sleeping.”

He nods, but isn’t convinced. He knows what he knows. “You burn in the sunlight,” he continues. Her smile is gone. 

“I have a skin condition,” she says, and suddenly she looks guarded. “It’s a sun allergy. My skin burns and breaks out and it itches like crazy. So I avoid it.”

“You didn’t come in uninvited…”

“It’s polite!” she almost yells, making Clyde jump in his seat. “Seriously,” she mumbles, “doesn’t anyone teach manners in this country?”

“You don’t eat,” he continues, the feeling that he’s going to regret this growing in his chest as she throws him an accusatory glare. However, he needs to know. “And you were repulsed by garlic.”

“I _can’t_ eat everything I’d like to. Do you know how hard it is not to be able to eat?” she asks in an accusatory tone, and Clyde shakes his head. “Do you know the pain I am into whenever I dare to put carbs in my mouth? And do you know that I do it anyway? I had to move from Paris because there was a bakery downstairs and it would smell all day and all night long of fresh baked bread and I couldn’t resist it; so I’d give in and eat a cinnamon roll once a week and then writhe in pain for days.” She sighs and pours herself a glass of water that she doesn't drink. “So I moved back to the US, here you only eat steaks and _fucking kale_.”

She’s angry and hurt, Clyde can tell from the way she doesn’t look at him and starts unpacking the rest of the stuff with jerky movements and a frown on her face. He wishes he could just disappear from her kitchen. 

“I really thought you wouldn’t be so judgmental. But I guess everyone is an asshole nowadays, just hating everything that doesn’t fit in their small mold of normalcy.”

That really hurts, and Clyde is instantly filled with regret. He’d become one of the people he hated because he assumed something about her and then didn’t listen to the voice of reason in the back of his mind telling him that vampires weren’t a thing and everything was just a coincidence. And even if she was, why did it matter so much? Except for the eating human blood thing, they might actually be pretty decent people, he presumes. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, looking down at his prosthesis. “I didn’t mean to assume things, I just thought… I’m really really sorry.”

“Vampire? How did you get that idea anyway?” she asks propping her hands on her hips and looks at him with the general air of a displeased housewife. “Oh no, don’t tell me,” she says, shoving a finger in his face when he opens his mouth, his cheeks starting to turn red. “It’s because my family comes from Transylvania.” Clyde nods and she laughs, leaning on the counter, pressing a hand to her forehead. “Well, I’ve got news for you, mate: not all Transylvanians are vampires.”

She starts unboxing more things, piling them on top of one another, filling the table with trinkets and bottles and a bunch of lavender. Clyde sits awkwardly in his chair, still playing with the hem of his shirt, watching her mumble unintelligible words to herself from time to time. He’d leave, but she’s angry and he wouldn’t want to upset her more. So he stays, looking at her with guilt in his eyes. He’d really fucked up this time. He realizes that he really likes her, and it hurts knowing that he upset her with his stupidity.

“Well, _some_ of us are,” she eventually says, not looking at him and her voice is a little shaky, “but it’s such a small fraction of the population, that it’s almost insignificant. Seriously, I’ve met more vampires in the Netherlands than in Romania,” she says, shaking her head.

“What?” is the only thing that comes out of Clyde’s mouth, after opening and closing it a couple of time in a failed attempt to make a sound. 

“I think it’s the climate,” she continues. “We’re really sensitive to sunlight, although we crave it. It’s cloudy most of the year in Netherlands, so I guess that makes it more bearable. I don’t know, I’ve lived a while in the Netherlands, but the almost constant rain makes it so depressing, you know?”

Clyde is still looking at her with his mouth slightly open, but she doesn’t seem to care. 

“Oh, she sent me some sherry too!” she says, pulling another bottle out of the box. “This one is great for cooking if I manage to reduce it enough to get all the alcohol out. I’ll keep this, but you can take all the others,” she says placing the bottle on a shelf. “Are you scared?” she asks, keeping his back turned to him.

“A bit,” he admits. “More… shocked I’d say.”

“Well, you should consider yourself lucky, you’re one of the very few people I’ve told about this. But I guess since you’ve already figured it out, what’s the point in lying.” She looks sad when she turns around and maybe a little wary.

“Do you have fangs?” he asks, letting his curiosity get the best of him. He assumes this isn’t the best thing to ask when someone just confessed they are a vampire.

“Yeah,” she laughs, opening her mouth and letting him see how her normal canines grew in size. “They’re retractable. We don’t use them much, but they make for a great bottle opener in a pinch.”

“Will you bite me?” he asks, a shiver of fear running down his spine.

“Oh, hell no! Who do you think I am?” she asks, offended. “Actually, that question can be very open to interpretation. But no, I’m not gonna eat you. Shit, that’s a questionable statement too,” she says and giggles, pulling more lavender out of the box.

Clyde isn’t as oblivious to innuendos as he seems and he knows his cheeks are starting to burn, but he’s curious to find out more.

“What do you eat then?”

“This,” she replies, pulling a glass bottle out of the fridge and placing it in front of him. The label is colourful and unfamiliar, and the glass a dark colour. ‘Nutritional drink’ says on the label and it really gives no indication of what is in it. 

“Is it blood?” She nods. “Human?”

“Nope. It’s animal blood from the slaughterhouses. Contrary to popular belief we eat animal blood. I think most people would be grossed out feeding off another human. Unless it’s done as a sort of bonding experience. Some people are into that.” She shrugs. “This one’s cow blood. It’s popular all around the world because it’s mild in flavour and halal.”

“Have you ever bitten someone?”

“My family when I was a kid. Vampire kids are really bitey, I guess it’s the instincts. I kept biting unsuspecting ankles and wrists, but most kids learn to stop biting at an early age,” she shrugs. “Oh, and I bit the neighbour’s dog when I was five, because he tried biting me and ripped my dress. Safe to say we weren’t really friends after that.”

This really isn’t what Clyde had imagined a vampire would be, so he just looked at her with wide eyes as she opened the blood bottle with her fangs and smiled at him, proud of the gimmick. He can’t help but smile back, feeling a weight lift off his heart now that he knows that she won’t kill anyone. 

“Would you like a glass of wine?” she asks and Clyde nods. She pulls out one glass out of a cupboard and a small army knife out of a drawer. “Which one?” she asks pointing at the bottles and Clyde just chooses one at random. To be honest, he’d rather have a glass of strong whiskey, but any alcohol will do. 

She opens the bottle in one swift motion and pours the red liquid into the glass. It’s dark red and opaque and it reminds him of blood. He can feel the hair raising on the back of his neck. 

“Looks a little like blood,” she says, handing Clyde the glass. “My grandma always drinks out of crystal glasses, but I find that to be pretentious as fuck.”

“I thought vampires can’t eat anything besides blood.”

“Most of us can eat normal food too, but we are very prone to autoimmune diseases. So we get all sorts of weird intolerances. But I’m fucked up even by vampire standards. Cheers!” She laughs and takes a sip from her blood bottle. She looks a little sad. He feels really bad for being shit to her. After all, does it really matter if she is a vampire or not?

The wine has a heavy aroma, reminding him of sunny plains and summer afternoons. It’s good, he thinks, but he can’t focus on the taste. She’s still a little shocked and his mind is in overdrive. 

“So what are you going to do now that you know for sure that I’m a vampire?” she asks, playing with the bottle cap between her fingers. “Will you try to put a wooden stake through my heart?” She laughs, but he can tell she is worried. He can’t imagine how exposed she was feeling right now and how vulnerable. “You know, we’re not as dangerous as people think. I mean we may be a little stronger than a normal person, and a little faster, but we can be easily incapacitated if you shine a phone flashlight in our eyes. So now that you know all this,” she says after a little break, “what will you do?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” He shrugs. “And I actually hoped you’d ask me out,” she sighs, making Clyde’s head snap up to look at her. He can feel his cheeks starting to burn.

“Well, I was going to… I mean, I wanted to know if… how…”

“You would have asked me out if I weren’t a vampire?” she tries making some sense of the utter nonsense he is babbling. 

“No.” He takes a deep breath trying to put his thoughts in order. “I just wanted to know. So I could be sure I’m not crazy.” It’s a bit painful to admit, but sometimes he has his doubts. He believes in things most people don’t, and he craves the proof that he isn’t just imagining things. “I would have asked you out anyway, but I guess I fucked that chance up.”

“I’m inclined to accept anyway,” she says and Clyde’s head snaps to look at her. “You know, as an apology and see where it goes from there. If you’re not to scared of dating a vampire.”

“I’m not, but only if you promise not to eat me.”

He can see her lips curl into a devious smile. “I can’t promise that. Cause you’re a snack.”

“What?”

She laughs wholeheartedly and he can’t help but crack a smile. 

“I’m working tonight and tomorrow, but I’ve got two nights off after that.”

“Well it’s not quite a proper date,” he says, scratching his head, “but you could come to the bar on Halloween. There’s a party and all.” He shrugs. “If you’ve got no other plans.”

“First date on Halloween, that’s actually really cute. Too bad I hadn’t planned on leaving the house this Halloween and I have no costume.”

“I think you’d make a pretty believable vampire as it is.”

She looks at him with wide eyes and bursts into laughter. “That’s actually genius!”

*

To say he is nervous is an understatement. He woke up early in the morning and has been panicking ever since, almost driving his brother insane. He refused to dress up for Halloween, even though Jimmy insisted he would make a great Captain Hook, but he chose to wear his best shirt and the nicest pair of dark jeans he owned. He skipped the cologne, because as he found out two nights ago, vampires had a really keen sense of smell—that’s why most of them hated garlic with a passion.

They had ended up talking a lot that night. At some point she turned on the PC and clocked in but then ignored it for the next half an hour while they were still chatting in her kitchen. Eventually, Clyde felt like he would fall asleep in his seat, so he said goodnight and walked home with three and a half bottles of french wine in tow. 

But he hasn’t seen her since that night so now he’s nervous. What if she’s changed her mind about the date? What if she packed everything and left town one night, of fear of being exposed as a vampire? Clyde couldn’t stop overthinking and he was actually relieved when it was time to go to work. 

His family and friends had arrived a bit earlier because Mellie had insisted that the place wasn’t decorated enough and she wanted to help. Clyde didn’t stop her, she seemed to really enjoy it. In the meantime he prepped the punch bowls and some of the special Halloween themed drinks. And then he waited. And waited. And waited. 

He knew he shouldn't be expecting her before sundown, but after the sun had set he started counting the minutes. His eyes darted to the door whenever he heard someone coming in, and he was disappointed every time someone else entered the bar. Mellie tried calming him down a couple of times, but he was too stressed to listen. 

Eventually, the door opens and she steps in, looking like the most stunning portrayal of a vampire he’d ever seen. She’s dressed in velvet and lace, black and wine red with accents of silver here and there and matching jewelry. Her makeup—he now knows it’s just makeup—is making her face look sculpted, almost sunken, her cheeks glowing in the dim light. She has veins painted on her neck in dark colours, making her skin look almost translucent. Her eyes and lips are bold and dark, and when she smiles, he can see a pair of plastic vampire teeth. She’s holding a McDonalds cup with McBlood written on it in red sharpie.

“Goof efening, Sir,” she says, taking a seat on a bar stool. Clyde laughs, hands her a tissue and she promptly spits the plastic dentures in it. “God, they’re uncomfortable as fuck,” she mumbles. “I guess I’ll be a toothless vampire from now on.”

“You look great,” Clyde says, and to his surprise he is able to form coherent words. 

“Do you think I look vampiric enough?” she asks, striking a pose. “I think I might have overdone it a bit, but I found this super cool makeup tutorial on youtube and I had to try it. I kept messing it up, though. The costume I got off Amazon, I had to pay express shipping to get it delivered in time.”

“I think you look amazing.” 

“Oh, thank you! You don’t look half bad either.”

“And here she is, our own local vampire!” Jimmy greets her, snaking an arm around her waist. “He was afraid you’d ran off into the night never to come back. He did tell you he thought you were a real vampire, right?”

Clyde blushes, but doesn’t deny it. It’s true, after all. 

“Yeah he did. Wouldn’t be the first one though, with my weird lifestyle and odd job. Now I’ll have to do my best to live up to the hype.”

“Just do what the vampires do best,” he laughs.

“Suck?” she asks, in the most innocent manner, while Jimmy roars with laughter. The only thing Clyde can do is blush twenty shades of red and hurl a fistful of ice at Jimmy.

“I didn’t say it! She said it!” Jimmy, defends himself, leaving them to join one of the pool tables. 

Clyde is lucky enough to have other customers to tend to, so when he comes back, his face is a normal shade again. She is waiting for him with a huge grin on her face, the straw caught between her teeth and he feels like his cheeks are starting to redden once again. 

“Is there anything I can get you, Miss?” he asks, leaning on the counter in front of her.

“Not really,” she says, and he’s sure her eyes are lingering on his lips a moment too long. “McDonalds stole this client from you. But you could put this on ice for me and I’ll make sure to tip you right,” she says with a wink, producing a ‘nutritional drink’ from her purse. Clyde takes it, fills a bucket with ice—although ice is really expensive at the moment, but if he can’t impress her with a drink, he can at least do this— and places her bottle in it, like the most expensive bottle of champagne. She laughs and comments that the feels just as pretentious as her grandmother.

“But now that I think of it,” she says once he returns to her, “there is something I might like.”

“And what is that?”

“Everyone gather round for pictures!” Mellie’s voice somehow covers the music, making everyone look at her and completely ruining the moment. “Clyde, get out of there and let’s all take a picture. I’m not taking no for an answer,” she says, pointing a perfectly manicured finger at him.

Clyde apologizes to his date and begrudgingly goes around the counter. Mellie had maybe too many Grave Diggers and now she’s a little wobbly as she comes and grabs his date’s hand. 

“You too,” she says, dragging both of them to the middle of the makeshift dance floor, where she’s aligned all their family and friends. “Why didn’t you dress up? You’re gonna be the odd one out again,” Mellie mumbles, looking at his shirt with a displeased sneer on her face.

“He did though.”

“As what?”

“As my next victim!” she says, putting the plastic teeth back in her mouth and making bitey motions. 

“Okay,” Mellie laughs. “I’ll accept that, but only if you bite his neck in the picture.”

“Won’t that be a problem for you?” Clyde asks, once Mellie has gone to put everyone in place for the picture.

“What? The picture? Why would it be a problem?”

“I don’t know…” he says, feeling another embarrassing blush creeping up his cheeks.

She curiously looks at him for a few moments then bursts out laughing. “Oh, you thought we don’t show up in pictures, did you?” Clyde wishes he could just lie and pretend that didn’t happen, now that he realizes the stupidity of his question, but he’s made a fool of himself once again and there is no point in denying it, so he just nods. “Of course I do, I have an Instagram, silly!” He has no idea what that could be, but he nods anyway.

Mellie keeps fussing around, arranging everyone in place. Eventually he ends up sitting down in front of everyone on a haystack that used to be part of the decor, something he hates, as he’d rather be hidden somewhere in a corner. But his date is leaning on his shoulder, her face in the crook of his neck, her breath hot on his skin and he doesn’t mind that. He actually likes it, and the idea that she could actually bite him for real makes it even more thrilling. 

“You know, I could really bite you right now,” she whispers in his ear between pictures. A shiver runs down his spine, but it’s not a bad feeling. He doesn’t know if he’d actually like to be bitten by a vampire—by her—but the idea is definitely enticing. “But I’m not going to,” she says, and places a soft kiss on his skin. 

He has to take a few moments to clear his head before he can get up and go back behind the bar after everyone has finished taking pictures. She has already been stolen by a couple who complimented her makeup and wanted to take pictures with her by the skeletons, so he is alone. He needs a stiff drink before he can tend to other customers, so he pours himself a shot of whiskey. 

The night is fun, with lots of drinking and dancing and a lot of people having fun. They’d all been going through a rough patch lately and he’s happy to see his family and friends just having a good time together. But he doesn't spend as much time with his date as he’d like to. There’s dancing and pictures and she’s liked by everyone, so he’s a little jealous when she keeps being taken away from him. She always comes back, smiling and flirting, but he feels like the time they get to spend together isn’t enough. 

The party dies down at some point, when most people have gone home, some of them too drunk to function properly. She walks outside and he’s a little afraid she’d just go home without saying goodnight. But she looks him in the eye and winks before closing the door behind her, so he knows to follow.

He finds her walking in the parking lot in front of the bar. Her eyes catch the light for half a second when he opens the door and glow in the dark like he’d seen them do on that fateful rainy night. 

“Your eyes really do glow,” he says, joining her on her little walk. The night air is refreshing after the hot and stuffy atmosphere inside, and the silence comforting. 

“Yeah they do. It’s one of the things you actually got right.” She grabs onto his elbow and moves closer to him, walking in sync. “But you did believe some really wild things about vampires.”

“It’s not my fault. Some people spread misinformation about your kind.” He denies it a little more vehemently than he should, but it’s probably just the alcohol. She laughs. “I’m just guessing here.”

“Well then,” she says, straightening her back, “let me help my kind and dispel some myths. Ask me things. True or false.”

“Umm… you’re immortal?”

“False. We are born, we age and we die like any other human. We age a little slower though. I’ll end up being that kind of grandma everyone compliments with ‘Oh my god, you’re eighty? You don’t look a day over sixty’,” she laughs. 

“You have superpowers.”

“I wish. My life would be so much easier if I could just ‘whoosh!’ things away.” 

“You’re incredibly beautiful,” he says, and he can feel his heart skip a beat. He can feel her stop so he stops too. 

“False,” she says, taking a step in front of him. She’s looking so beautiful, even in the dim light coming from the only working street lamp. “We’re just normal people.”

“Then why can’t I stop looking at you?” He knows the answer, but he likes the way she grabs onto his elbows and tiptoes, looking him straight in the eyes before kissing him. He pulls her closer to his chest, hoping that his heart wouldn’t break free. 

“I don’t know,” she whispers, as they break for air. “You tell me.”

Someone walks out for a smoke and ‘I put a spell on you’ blares through the open door. She laughs, cups his cheeks and kisses him again.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween guys! I hope you enjoyed my little story just as much as I enjoyed planning it (writing is always a bish). If you did, consider leaving me some love, I grow from your love, and/or dropping me a line on tumblr [@joeybelle](http://joeybelle.tumblr.com/). I love all sort of feedback, long comments, short comments, kudos, <3 and emojis as extra kudos and also cookies sent to me by magic or pigeon. 
> 
> Special thanks to my beta and BFF Llexeh, who once again made this possible.


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